Huskies Hit The Trails At Magnuson Park

Friday, September 3

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

UW - Seattle U Invitational

September 03, 2021 | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE - The Huskies took the first official competitive steps of the 2021 cross country season today just a few days after the team reported to campus. Washington met up with Seattle U. at Magnuson Park today for a run around the central meadow, getting a small early test of their legs before heading off campus for a two week training block.

Cross country is set for a return to normalcy this fall, following the delayed and shortened 2020 season held this past January through March at the same time as the indoor track season. The Huskies ran today's rust-buster and now will have nearly a month before racing again on Oct. 1 and 2 at meets in South Bend, Ind. and Salem, Ore.

The 13th-ranked men's team had six men racing this morning over four miles. The six men ran side by side virtually the entire race and never really broke formation. The pack consisted of Isaac Mohn, Daniel Maton, Joe Waskom, Luke Houser, Leo Daschbach, and Sam Affolder. They all crossed within two seconds of each other, with Mohn, Maton, and Waskom in 20:32; Daschbach and Houser in 20:33, and Affolder in 20:34.

"This was our third day since reporting and clearly they did their work over the summer and are in good shape, and they executed the race plan very well," said Men's Head Coach Andy Powell, who was looking forward to the upcoming training camp. "It will be great just to have the time together that we missed a little bit last year. Do some goal-setting and spend time thinking about the year to come. The training is ideal, too, but really just the time together."

The women's race had a heavily purple starting line with 14 Huskies getting some laps in today. The field broke up over the three miles and ultimately it was second-year Dawg Naomi Smith sprinting away and taking the win in a time of 16:15. Madison Heisterman and true freshman Julia David-Smith dashed to the line in 16:20 and 16:21, respectively. Camila David-Smith was next after her sister in a time of 16:33, and Haley Herberg rounded out the top-five in 16:42.

Women's Director Maurica Powell said she was pleased with the attitude and effort from the 10th-ranked women's team. "Some of them ran a workout on Tuesday and took it a little more relaxed today. Others hadn't run a race in a long time and used it more as a competitive opportunity. Now we go train. We have twenty women and right now all twenty women are healthy and training well, so that's the most exciting thing. We have a full team of personnel. We missed Allie Schadler today and we are thinking of her as she is home with family for her grandfather's funeral, so she'll rejoin us in a couple days, but we're excited to go train with the whole crew."